^f^<^-^ 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


5< 


/. 


K 


"^o 
^ 


1.0 


1.1 


12.8 


Itt  122    12.2 
!lf   lio    12.0 


I: 
1 

L25  IB  1.4    11.6 


p 


„1»^ 


^ 


/i 


^>:>' 


/: 


^ 


'■y 


y 


Hioiogmpbic 

Sciences 

Corporation 


33  WIST  MAIN  STMET 

WEBSTER,  N.Y.  MSSO 

(716)872-4503 


.^^ 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHIVI/iCMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  Institute  for  Historical  IS/licroreproductions  /  Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notet/Notas  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


Tl 
to 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checlted  below. 


,.    Coloured  covers/ 
^    Couverture  de  couleur 


I     I   Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommagie 


□   Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaurAe  et/ou  pelliculAe 

□   Cover  title  missing/ 
Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

I     I   Coloured  maps/ 


n 


n 


n 


D 


Cartes  gftographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  blaclcl/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 


[~~|   Coloured  plates  and/or  illustrations/ 


Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Rail*  avec  d'autres  documents 


|~y]    Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 


along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serrie  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 

distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intirieure 

BIbnL  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appeer  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutAos 
lors  d'une  restauraiion  apparaissent  dans  le  texts, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  Atait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  txt  filmAes. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commontaires  supplimentairer: 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  AtA  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-Atre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  mithode  normale  de  filmage 
sont  indiquAs  ci-dessous. 


□   Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 

□    Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagAes 

[~~|   Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 


GZl 


D 


Pages  restauries  et/ou  pelliculAes 

Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 
Pages  dAcolorAes,  tacheties  ou  piquies 


r~~1    Pages  detached/ 


Pages  ditachtes 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Quality  InAgsie  de  I'impression 

Includes  supplementary  materii 
Comprend  du  mat6riel  supplAmentaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Mitlon  disponible 


I      I  Showthrough/ 

I      I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

|~n  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I — I  Only  edition  available/ 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc..  have  been  ref limed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata.  une  pelure. 
etc.,  ont  6ti  filmies  A  nouveau  de  fa^on  A 
obtenir  la  m*illeure  image  possible. 


Tl 

P< 
oi 

fil 


O 
b( 
th 
si< 
ot 
fil 
sii 
or 


T^ 
sh 
Tl 
w 

IVI 
dil 
er 
be 
rig 
re( 
m( 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checlted  below/ 

Co  document  est  filmi  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu4  ci-dessous. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


26X 


30X 


y 


12X 


16X 


aox 


24X 


?8X 


32X 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

Legislative  Library  of 
British  Columbia 

The  images  appearing  h«»re  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


Original  copies  in  prir«ted  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  ending  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — »>  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 

IVIaps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  followir<g  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


L'exemplaire  film6  fut  reproduit  grAce  d  la 
g6n6rosit6  de: 

Legislative  Library  of 
British  Columbia 

Les  images  suivantes  oni  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin.  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettet^  de  l'exemplaire  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 

Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couverture  en 
papier  est  imprimde  sont  film6s  en  commenpant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  filmds  en  commen^ant  par  la 
premiere  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbols  ^^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbols  V  signifie  "FIN". 

Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  6tre 
film6s  A  des  taux  de  reduction  diffirents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  clich6,  il  est  film6  d  partir 
de  I'angle  sup6rieur  gauche,  de  gauche  A  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndoessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustrent  la  m^thode. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

THE 


RIVAL    GIL. AIMA.NTS 


FOB 


ZSrORTH   AMERIOik. 


1497-1765. 


BT 


JUSTIN    WINSOB. 


fs*:^^vvv*,  f. 


ROVINCtAi-  kJSRAj 
VICTORIA,  ii,  ^» 


;£?  J  ^^-J..  4S>=i~i*&"- 


'■-,?<)< 


c<v  "■- 


'J^^MM^^'ii-i  . 


E-^*^*  "*-*** 


THE 


RIVAL   CLA.IMA.jSrTS 


FOR 


NORTH  A.MERICA.. 


1497-1755. 


BT 


JUSTIN    WINSOR. 


From  Pkocbkoinos  of  trb  Ambkican  AMTiqaARiAN  Socibtv,  at  thb 
Annual  Mbbtimg,  Octobkb  24, 18M. 


PRESS    OF    CHARLES    HAMILTON, 

311    MAIN    STREET. 

1800. 


THE  RIVAL  CLAIMANTS  FOll  NORTH  AMERICA. 
1497-1755. 


In  considering  the  respective  claims  of  the  English  and 
French  to  North  America,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
conflict  of  rights  is  not  only  one  on  identical  lines  arising 
from  discovery,  but  one  also  on  opposed  lines  arising  from 
different  conceptions  of  the  rights  of  discovery.  The  claims 
are  also  represented  by  contrary  methods  and  purposes  in 
enforcing  them. 

The  French,  in  the  time  of  Francis  I.  and  later,  claimed 
the  new  continent  by  reason  of  Verrazzano's  voyage  along 
its  Atlantic  coast.  The  claim,  however,  was  not  made 
good  by  permanent  occupation  anywhere  along  the  sea- 
board of  the  present  United  States. 

Moreover,  the  English,  under  the  Cabots,  had  sailed  along 
this  coast  earlier.  Still  it  was  not  till  nearly  a  century 
had  passed  that  the  English  government,  urged  by  the 
spirit  which  Hakluyt  and  Dr.  Dee  were  fostering,  awoke  to 
the  opportunity  and  began  seriously  to  base  rights  upon 
tlie  Cabot  voyages.  The  French  at  a  later  day  sought  to 
discredit  tiiis  English  claim,  on  the  ground  that  the  Cabots 
were  private  adventurers  and  could  establish  no  national 
pretensions.  The  English  pointedly  replied  that  their 
Kenry  VII.  had  given  them  patents  which  reserved  to  the 
crown  dominion  over  any  lands  which  were  discovered.  This 
reply  was  triumphant  so  far  as  it  went,  but  it  still  left  the 
question  aside,  whether  coast  discovery  carried  rights  to  the 
interior,  particularly  if  such  inland  regions  drained  to  another 


31576 


sea.  The  English  attempt  in  the  latter  part  of  the  sixteenth 
century,  under  Ilaloigh's  influence,  to  occupy  Roanolve 
island  and  adjacent  regions,  hut  without  definite  extension 
westward,  was  in  due  time  followed  by  successive  royal 
patents  and  charters,  beginning  in  1G06  and  ending  in  IBKd, 
which  appropriated  the  hospitable  parts  of  the  continent 
stretching  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific.  For  a  north 
and  south  extension  these  grants  almost  exactly  covered 
the  whole  length  of  the  Mississippi,  since  the  parallel  of 
48°,  which  formed  the  northern  limit,  and  that  of  29°, 
which  made  the  southern,  were  respectively  u  little  north 
of  the  source  of  the  great  river  and  just  seaward  of  its 
deltas. 

The  charter  of  Acadia,  granted  by  the  French  King  three 
years  before  the  first  of  the  English  grants,  covered  the 
coast  from  the  40°  to  the  46°,  and  was  (hus  embraced  in 
the  pretensions  of  the  English  King,  but  his  rival  refrained 
from  giving  any  westward  extension,  beyond  what  was 
implied  in  "the  lands,  shores,  and  countries  of  Acadia  and 
other  neighboring  lands." 

It  is  interesting  to  determine  what,  during  this  period  of 
sixty  years,  mainly  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  were  the  notions,  shared  by  the  English  King  and 
bis  advisers,  of  the  extent  of  this  munificent  domain,  with 
which  he  and  they  were  so  free. 

A  few  years  before  the  first  of  these  grants  was  made  to 
the  Plymouth  Company,  in  1606,  Hakluyt  had  laid  before 
the  world,  in  Molineaux's  great  Mappe-Monde,  the  ripest 
English  ideas  of  the  new  world,  and  these  gave  a  breadth 
to  North  America  not  much  different  from  what  it  was  in 
reality.  The  Pacific  coast  line,  however,  was  not  carried 
above  Drake's  New  Albion,  our  modern  upper  California. 
This  left  the  question  still  undetermined,  if  one  could 
not  travel  on  a  higher  parallel  dry-shod  to  Asia,  as 
Thomas  Morton,  later  a  settler  on  Boston  Bay,  imagined 
he  could. 


5 


Molineaux  gives  no  conception  of  the  phyHicnl  distribu- 
tion of  mountuin  and  vnlley  in  this  vast  area,  further  than 
to  bulli  the  great  lakes  into  a  8in^lc  inland  sea.  The 
notion  of  an  immense  interior  valley,  corresponding  in  some 
extent  to  our  Mississippi  basin,  which  Meroator  forty  years 
before  had  divined,  had  not  yet  impressed  the  British  mind. 
Morcator,  indeed,  had  misconceived  it,  in  that  be  joined 
the  Mississippi  and  St.  Lawrence  basins  together,  by  oblit- 
erating the  divide  between  them.  In  this  way  he  made  his 
great  continental  river  rise  in  Arizona  and  sweep  north- 
east and  join  the  great  current  speeding  to  the  Gulf  of  St. 
Lawrence.  Here,  then,  in  the  adequate  breadth  of  the 
continent,  as  Mercator  and  Molineaux  drew  it,  is  conclusive 
evidence  that  the  royal  giver  of  these  vast  areas  had,  or 
could  have  had,  something  like  a  proper  notion  of  the 
extent  of  his  munificent  gifts.  At  the  date  of  the  last  of 
these  charters,  in  1665,  Cartier  and  his  successors  had  for  a 
hundred  and  thirty  years  been  endeavoring  to  measure  the 
breadth  of  the  continent  by  the  way  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
and  the  great  lakes.  They  sought  to  prove  by  inland 
routes  whether  the  estimated  longitude  of  New  Albion  had 
been  accurate  or  not.  There  had,  it  is  true,  been  some 
vacillation  of  belief  meanwhile.  One  thing  had  been 
accomplished  to  clarify  the  notions  respecting  these  great 
interior  spaces.  The  belief  of  Morcator  had  given  way  to 
the  expectation  of  finding  a  large  river,  flowing  in  a  south- 
erly direction,  whose  springs  were  separated  from  those  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  by  a  I'Viding  ridge.  It  was  not  yet 
determined  where  the  outlet  of  this  great  river  was.  Was 
it  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  Florida,  as  a  long  stretch  up  the 
coast  from  the  penin.ula  was  at  that  time  called  ?  Was  it 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  identifying  it  with  the  stream  in 
which  De  Soto  had  been  buried?  Was  it  in  the  Gulf  of 
California,  making  it  an  extension  of  the  Colorado  River? 
Each  of  these  views  had  its  advocates  among  the  French, 
who  bad  already  learned  something  of  the  upper  reaches  of 


ft 


ioth  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi.  It  was  left  for  Joliet  and 
Marquette,  a  few  years  later,  not  to  discover  the  Mississippi, 
but  to  reach  the  truth  of  its  flow,  and  for  La  Salle  to  con- 
firm it. 

These  latter  explorations  of  the  priest  and  trader  gave 
the  French  such  rights  ns  came  from  traversing  th^'oughout 
the  water-wnys,  which  led  with  slight  interruption  from  the 
'vater  back  of  Newfoundland,  to  the  Mexican  gulf.  In  duo 
time  this  immense  valley  of  the  Mississippi  was  entered 
by  the  British  traders,  as  they  discovered  pass  after  pass 
through  the  mountain  barrier,  all  the  way  from  New  York 
to  Carolina.  The  French,  indeed,  had  permanent  settlement 
along  the  Illinois  and  on  the  lower  Mississippi,  but  in 
other  parts  of  the  great  valley,  there  is  little  doubt  that 
wandering  Britons  were  quite  as  familiar  as  the  French 
trader  or  adventurer  to  the  Indians.  If  the  evidence  is  not 
to  be  disputed,  there  was  among  these  hardy  British  adven- 
turers, a  certain  Jobu  Howard,  who  was,  perhaps,  the  first, 
on  the  English  part,  to  travel  the  whole  course  of  one  of 
the  great  ramiflcutions  of  the  valley.  It  was  in  1742  that 
he  passed  from  the  upper  waters  of  the  James  over  the 
mountains  to  New  River,  by  which  he  reached  the  Ohio. 
Descending  this  main  afHuent,  he  was  floating  down  the 
Mississippi  itself,  when  he  was  captured  by  some  French 
and  Indians  and  conveyed  to  Now '  Orleans.  An  air  of 
circumstantiality  is  given  to  the  expedition  in  the  journal 
of  John  Peter  Salley,  who  was  one  of  Howard's  compan- 
ions. Fry,  in  his  report  to  the  Ohio  Company  at  a  later 
day,  made  something  of  this  exploit  as  crediting  the  English 
with  an  early  acquaintance  with  the  great  valley.  The 
most  western  settlements  of  the  Virginians  are  marked  in 
Evans's  map  of  1755,  as  that  of  J.  Keeney  at  the  junction 
of  Greenbriar  and  New  River,  and  Stahlmak  r's  house  on  the 
middle  fork  of  the  Holston  River.'  These  isolated  outposts 
of  the  English  were  an  exception  to  their  habit  of  making 
one  settlement  support  another.     As  set  forth  by  Mitchell, 


the  English  alleged  that  the  French  planted  their  posts 
"Htraggling  up  and  down  in  remote  and  uncultivated 
deserts  in  order  thereby  to  seem  to  occupy  a  greater  extent 
of  territory,  while  in  effect  they  hardly  occupy  any  at  all." 

The  claims  then  of  these  rival  contP'>tn"t8  for  the  Trans- 
Alleghany  region,  as  they  respectively  n !  unced  them  at 
the  time,  were  thus  put : 

The  English  pretended  to  have  spcured  their  rights  by  a 
westward  extension,  from  the  reg' jra  of  their  coast  occu- 
pation, and  down  to  1763  they  stubbornly  maintained  this 
claim,  though  forced  to  strengthen  it,  first,  by  alleging  cer- 
tain sporadic,  and  sometimes  doubtful  and  even  disproved, 
wanderings  of  their  people  beyond  the  mountains ;  and 
second,  by  deriving  an  additional  advantage  from  professed 
rights  ceded  to  them  by  the  Iroquois. 

When  the  main  grants  to  the  Plymouth  and  London 
Companies  were  superseded  by  leco  extensive  allotments, 
this  same  sea-to-sea  extension  was  constantly  reinforced  as 
far  as  iteration  could  do  it.  The  provincial  charter  of 
Massachusetts,  for  instance,  in  confirming  the  earlier  bounds, 
carried  her  limits  west  towards  the  South  sea.  That  of 
Virginia  did  the  same,  but  with  so  clumsy  a  definition  that 
the  claims  of  Massachusetts  and  Virginia  collided  in  the 
O'lio  Valley  and  beyond. 

The  Congress  at  Albany,  in  1754,  re-affirmed  this  west- 
ward extension,  but  allowed  that  it  had  been  modified 
^  north  of  the  St.  Lawrence  only  by  concession  to  Canada 
under  the  treaty  of  Utrecht  in  1713.  A  similar  ground 
was  assumed  by  Shirley  at  Paris,  in  1755,  when  he  met  the 
French  ComTi.issionors  in  an  endeavor  to  reconcile  their 
respective  claims. 

The  French,  on  the  other  hand,  derived  their  rights,  in 
their  opinion,  from  having  been  the  first  to  traverse  the 
great  valley,  and  because  they  had  made  settlements  at  a 
few  points  ;  and  still  more  because  they  possessed  and  had 
settled  about  the  mouth  of  the  great  I'iver.     It  was  their 


8 


contention,  that  such  a  possession  of  the  mouth  of  a  main 
stream,  gave  them  jurisdiction  over  its  entire  watershed  in 
the  interior,  just  as  their  possession  of  the  outlet  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  gave  to  France  the  control  of  its  entire  basin. 
Upon  this  principle,  Louis  XIV.  had  made  his  concession 
to  Crozat  for  monopolizing  the  trade  of  the  great  valley. 

These  two  grounds  of  national  rights,  the  one  arising 
from  the  possession  of  the  coast  and  the  other  from  occupa- 
tion of  a  river-mouth,  were  consequently  at  variance  with 
each  other.  They  were  both  in  themselves  preposterous, 
in  the  opinions  of  adversaries,  and  both  claimants  were 
forced  to  abate  their  pretensions.  The  English  eventually 
conceded  to  France  all  west  of  the  Mississippi.  France  by 
the  arbitrament  of  war  yielded,  to  one  people  or  another, 
the  water-sheds  of  both  the  Mississippi  and  the  St.  Law- 
rence, just  as  the  United  States  at  a  later  day,  making  a 
like  claim  for  the  entire  valley  of  tha  Columbia  River 
through  the  discovery  of  its  mouth,  were  forced  to  be  con- 
tent with  but  a  portion  of  their  demand. 


There  was  another  difference  in  the  claims  of  the  two 
contestants,  which  particularly  affected  their  respective 
relations  with  the  original  occupants  of  the  Great  Valley. 

The  French  asserted  possession  against  the  heathen,  but 
cared  little  for  his  territory  except  to  preserve  it  for  the  fur 
trade.  They  were  not,  consequently,  despoilers  of  the  sav- 
ages' hunting-grounds.  One  to  three  square  miles  was  esti- 
mated as  each  Indian's  requirement  for  the  chase.  On  the 
other  hand,  they  seized  such  points  as  they  wished,  without 
thought  of  recompensing  the  savage  owners.  This  preroga- 
tive of  free  appropriation,  the  French  persistently  guarded. 
When,  in  1751,  La  Jonquiere  told  the  tribes  on  the  Ohio, 
that  the  French  would  not  occupy  their  lands  without  their 
permission,  he  was  rebuked  by  his  home  government  and 
Duquesne,  his  successor,  was  enjoined  to  undo  the  impress- 
ion, which  La  Jonquiere  bad  conveyed  to  the  savages. 


9 


a  main 
■shed  in 

the  St. 
e  basin. 
Dcession 
ralley. 

arising 

occupa- 
ice  with 
)sterQus, 
ats  were 
rentually 
ranee  by 
another, 
it.  Law- 
[naking  a 
)ia  River 
0  be  con- 


the  two 
espective 
Vulley. 
then,  but 
)r  the  fur 
■  the  sav- 
was  esti- 
On  the 
,  without 
preroga- 
guarded. 
she  Ohio, 
tout  their 
tuent  and 
impresp- 
igos. 


On  the  other  hand,  the  English  pioneers,  by  their  char- 
ters and  patents,  got  a  jurisdiction  over,  but  not  a  fee  in, 
the  lands  conveyed.  In  the  practice  which  England  estab- 
lished, or  professed  to  establish,  occupation  could  only 
follow  upon  the  extinguishment  by  purchase  or  treaty  of 
the  native  title. 

Thus  the  Indian  had  exemplified  to  him  by  these  intrud- 
ers two  diverse  policies.  He  was  inclined  to  the  French 
policy  because  it  did  not  disturb  his  life,  and  drive  him 
away  from  his  ancestral  hunting-grounds.  Duquesne  was 
wont  to  tell  the  Indians  that  the  French  placing  a  fort  on 
the  Indian's  lands  did  not  mean  the  felling  of  forest  and 
planting  of  fields,  as  it  did  with  the  English  ;  but  that  the 
French  fort  became  only  a  convenient  hunting-lodge  for  the 
Indian,  with  undisturbed  game  about  it. 

The  Indian  was  inclined  to  the  English  policy  because  it 
showed  a  recognition  of  his  right  to  the  soil,  for  which  he 
could  get  cloth  and  trinkets  and  rum,  if  he  chose  to  sell  it. 
But  he  soon  found  that  the  clothes  which  he  obtained  wore 
out,  the  liquor  was  gone,  and  the  baubles  were  worthless. 
The  transaction,  forced  upon  him  quite  us  often  as  volun- 
tarily assumed,  was  almost  sure  to  leave  him  for  a  heritage 
a  contiguous  settlement  of  farmholders,  who  felled  the 
forests  and  drove  away  his  buffalo 

The  savage  was  naturally  much  perplexed  between  these 
rival  methods,  in  determining  which  was  more  for  his  advan- 
tage. Accordingly,  we  find  the  aboriginal  hordes  over  vast 
regions  divided  in  allegiance,  some  preferring  the  French 
and  others  the  English,  and  neither,  by  any  means,  constant 
to  one  side  or  the  other. 

Moreover,  these  two  diverse  policies  meant  a  good  deal 
to  such  disputants  in  the  trial  of  strength  between  them. 
The  French  knew  they  were  greatly  inferior  in  numbers, 
but  they  counted  on  a  better  organization,  and  a  single 
responsible  head  which  induced  celerity  of  movement,  and 


10 


this  went  a  great  way  in  overcoming  their  rival's  weight  of 
numbers.  Joncaire  boasted  of  this  to  Washington,  when 
this  Virginian  messenger  went  to  carry  the  warning  of 
Dinwiddie.  Pownall  understood  it,  when  he  said  that 
Canada  did  not  consist  of  farms  and  settlements  as  the 
English  colonies  did,  but  of  forts  and  soldiers.  "The 
English  cannot  settle  and  fight  too,"  he  adds.  "They  can 
fight  as  well  as  the  French,  but  they  must  give  over 
settling."  Thus  the  two  peoples,  seeking  to  make  the 
new  world  tributary  to  the  old,  sought  to  help  their  rival 
claims  by  gaining  over  these  native  arbiters.  It  was  soon 
seen  that  success  for  the  one  side  or  the  other  depended 
largely  on  holding  the  Indians  fast  in  allegiance. 

The  savage  is  always  impressed  by  prowess.  The  French 
for  many  years  claimed  his  admiration  through  their  mili- 
tary success,  and  the  English  often  lost  it  by  lack  of  ouch 
success.  In  personal  dealing  with  the  savage,  the  French 
always  had  the  advantage*  They  were  better  masters  of 
wiles.  They  knew  better  how  to  mould  the  savage  passions 
to  their  own  purposes.  With  it  all,  they  were  always 
tactful,  which  the  English  v/ere  far  from  being.  William 
Johnson,  the  astutest  manager  of  the  Indians  which  the 
English  ever  had,  know  this  thoroughly,  and  persistently 
tried  to  teach  his  countrymen  the  virtue  of  tact.  It  was 
not  unrecognized  among  his  contemporaries  that  Johnson's 
alliance  with  a  sister  of  Brant,  a  Mohawk  chief,  had  much 
to  do  with  his  infiuence  among  the  six  nations. 

"General  Johnson's  success,"  wrote  Peter  Fontaine, 
"was  owing  under  God  to  his  fidelity  to  the  Indians  and 
his  generous  conduct  to  his  Indian  wife,  by  whom  he  hath 
several  hopeful  sons,  who  are  all  war-captains,  the  bulwark 
with  him  of  the  Five  Nations,  and  loyal  subjects  to  their 
mother-country."  This  Huguenot,  Fontaine,  traced  much 
of  the  misery  of  frontier  life  to  the  failure  of  the  English 
to  emulate  the  French  in  intermarrying  with  the  natives, 
and  he,  curiously  rather  than  accurately,  refers  the  absence 


11 


when 


of  the  custom  to  an  early  incident  in  Virginia  history, 
"for  when  our  wise  politicians  heard  that  Rolfe  had  married 
Pocahontas,  it  was  deliberated  in  council  whether  he  had 
not  committed  high  treason  by  marrying  an  Indian  prin- 
cess ;  and  had  not  some  troubles  intervened  which  put  a 
stop  to  the  inquiry,  the  poor  man  might  have  been  hanged 
up  for  doing  the  most  just,  the  most  natural,  the  most 
generous  and  politic  action  that  ever  was  done  this  side  of 
the  water.  This  put  an  effectual  stop  to  all  intermarriages 
afterwards." 


Both  French  and  English  wore  not  slow  in  discoverinf; 
that  among  the  American  tribes  the  Iroquois  were  the  chief 
arbiters  of  savage  destiny  in  North  America.  The  struggle 
of  each  rival  was  to  secure  the  hel})  of  these  doughty  con- 
federates. In  the  early  years,  of  the  European  occupation, 
the  Dutch  propitiated  the  Iroquois  and  the  French  pro- 
voked them.  The  English  succeeded  to  the  policy  of  the 
Hollanders,  and  the  French  long  felt  the  enmity  which 
Champlain  had  engendered.  The  Dutch  and  English  could 
give  more  and  better  merchtindiso  for  a  beaver  skin,  and 
this  told  in  the  rivalry,  not  only  for  the  friendship  of  the  Iro- 
quois, but  for  that  of  other  and  more  distant  tribes.  This 
was  a  decided  gain  to  the  English  and  as  decided  a  loss  to 
the  French,  and  no  one  knew  it  better  than  the  losing  party. 


Throughout  the  long  struggle, 


the  English  never  ceased 


for  any  long  period  to  keep  substantial  hold  of  the  Iroquois. 
There  were  defections.  Some  portions  of  the  Oneidas  and 
Mohawks  were  gained  by  the  Jesuits  who  settled  their 
neophytes  near  Montreal.  The  Senecas  were  much  inclined 
to  be  independent,  and  the  French  possession  of  Niagara 
and  the  arts  of  Joncaire  helped  their  uncertainty.  Every 
tribe  of  the  United  Council  at  Onondaga  had  times  of  inde- 
cision. But,  on  the  whole,  the  English  were  conspicuously 
helped  by  the  Iroquois  allegiance,  and  they  early  used  it  to 
give  new  force  to  their  claim  for  a  westward  extension. 


12 


The  country  which  the  Iroquois  originally  occapied  was 
that  portion  of  the  State  of  New  York  south  of  its  great 
lake,  and  their  tribes  were  scattered  through  the  valley  of 
the  Mohawk,  along  the  water-shed  of  Ontario,  and  through- 
out the  country  holding  the  springs  of  the  Susquehanna  and 
the  Alleghany.  The  Susquehanna  had  been  from  the  days 
of  John  Smith  an  inviting  entrance  to  the  interior  from  the 
Chesapeake,  and  Champlain's  deputy,  in  1615,  bad  found 
that  it  afforded  a  route  to  the  sea  from  the  Iroquois  country. 

It  was  a  dispute  between  the  French  and  the  English, 
which  of  the  two  peoples  first  penetrated  this  Iroquois 
country.  La  Jonquiere,  in  1751,  claimed  the  priority  for 
the  French.  There  can  be  little  question,  however,  that 
whatever  right  followed  upon  priority  belonged  to  the 
Dutch,  and  by  inheritance  to  the  English.  This  was  always 
the  claim  at  Albany,  and  when  the  French  seized  upon 
Niagara,  the  English  pronounced  it  an  encroachment  upon 
the  Iroquois  country,  as,  indeed,  Charlevoix  acknowledged 
it  was.  At  the  same  time  the  French  contended  that  it  was 
a  part  of  the  St.  Lawrence  valley,  which  was  theirs  by 
virtue  of  Cartier's  and  later  discoveries.  On  this  ground 
they  also  claimed  the  valley  of  Luke  Champlain,  and  had 
advanced  to  Crown  Point  in  occupying  it,  though  the  Iro- 
quois considered  it  within  their  bounds. 

So  when  the  English  seized  Oswego  it  was  in  the  French 
view  an  usurpation  of  their  rights,  "the  most  flagrant 
most  pernicious  to  Canada."  This  sweeping  assertion, 
transformed  to  a  direct  statement,  meant  that  the  posses- 
sion of  Oswego  gave  the  English  a  superior  hold  on  the 
Indians.  It  also  offered  them  a  chance  to  intercept  the 
Indians  in  their  trading  journeys  to  Montreal.  This  ad- 
vantage was  rendered  greater  by  the  English  ability  to  give 
for  two  skins  at  Oswego  as  much  as  the  French  offered  for 
ten  at  Niagara.  De  Lancey  looked  upon  the  English  ability 
to  do  this  as  the  strongest  tie  by  which  they  retained  the 
Indians  in  their   alliance.      "Oswego,"  said  the  French, 


13 


"gives  us  all  the  evils,  without  the  advantages  of  war." 
Duquesne,  in  August,  1755,  confessed  that  it  was  nothing 
but  a  lack  of  pretext,  which  prevented  his  attacking  this 
English  post. 


About  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  the  Iroquois 
by  conquests  had  pushed  a  sort  of  feudal  sway  far  beyond 
their  ancestral  homes.  They  had  destroyed  the  Hurons  in 
the  country  west  of  the  Ottawa.  They  had  exterminated 
the  Eries  south  of  the  lake  of  that  name,  and  had  pushed 
their  conquests  at  least  as  far  as  the  Scioto,  and  held  in 
vassalage  the  tribes  still  farther  west.  They  even  at  times 
kept  their  enemies  in  terror  as  far  as  the  Mississippi. 
Somewhat  in  the  same  way  they  had  caused  their  primacy 
to  be  felt  along  the  Susquehanna.  Their  war  parties  were 
known  to  keep  the  fruitful  region  south  of  the  Ohio  in 
almost  absolute  desolation. 

The  area  included  in  these  conquests  is,  perhaps,  a  mod- 
erate estimate  of  what  the  English  meant  by  the  Iroquois 
claim.  As  early  as  1697,  the  Commissioners  of  Trade  and 
Plantations,  in  formulating  the  English  rights  to  sovereignty 
over  the  Iroquois,  asserted  something  larger  in  saying  that 
these  confederates  held  "in  tributary  subjection  all  the 
neighboring  Indians  and  went  sometimes  as  far  as  the  South 
Sea,  the  northwest  passage  and  Florida,  as  well  as  over 
that  part  of  the  country  now  called  Canada."  Mitchell,  in 
1755,  claimed  that  by  the  conquest  of  the  Shawnees  in 
1672  the  Iroquois  acquired  whatever  title  the  original  occu- 
piers of  the  Ohio  valley  bad,  and  that  their  conquest  of  the 
Illinois  carried  their  rights  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

The  English  turned  these  Iroquois  conquests  to  their 
advantage  by  assuming  that  the  regions  covered  by  this 
supremacy  fell  to  their  jurisdiction  as  one  of  the  considera- 
tions of  their  alliance  with  the  confederates.  This  preten- 
sion, in  its  most  arrogant  form,  allowed  there  was  no  terri- 
tory not  under  Iroquois  control  east  of  the  Mississippi, 


14 


unless  it  wns  the  region  of  the  south,  where,  with  equal 
complacency,  the  English  used  tlieir  friendship  with  the 
Cherokees,  Chickasaws  and  Creeks  to  cover  all  territory  of 
the  modern  Gulf  States,  with  a  bordering  region  north  of 
them.  In  Ruske's  English  map  of  1755, even  this  territory  of 
the  southern  tribes  is  made  tributary  to  the  Iroquois,  as  well 
as  all  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Illinois  and  Lake  Michi- 
gan, and  of  a  line  thence  to  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ottawa. 

In  pushing  their  conquests  to  the  Illinois,  the  Iroquois 
claimed,  as  Pownall  tells  us,  that  they  warred  upon  these 
distant  savages  because  it  was  necessary  to  protect  the 
beaver,  which  the  Illinois  were  exterminating.  There  was 
little  reason  for  so  benign  an  excuse,  for  the  ravages  of  the 
confederates  were  simply  prompted  by  an  inherent  martial 
spirit.  So  distinguished  a  student  of  their  career  as  Mr. 
Horatio  Hale  is  inclined  to  give  them  a  conspicuously 
beneficent  character,  which,  however,  hardly  met  the  ap- 
proval of  a  more  famous  student,  the  late  Francis  Parkman. 

This  Iroquois-Engiish  claim  had  distinguished  advocates 
in  Golden,  Franklin  and  Pownall,  but  there  was  some 
abatement  at  times  in  its  pretensions.  Sir  William  John- 
son, in  1763,  traced  the  line  of  this  dependent  country 
along  the  Blue  Ridge,  back  of  Virginia  to  the  head  of  the 
Kentucky  River,  down  that  current  to  the  Ohio  above  the 
falls ;  thence  to  the  south  end  of  Lake  Michigan  ;  along  its 
eastern  shore  to  Ma<;kinac ;  and  northeast  to  the  Ottawa 
and  down  that  river  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  The  right  of  the 
English  king  to  such  a  territory  as  this  dated  back,  as  the 
English  claimed,  to  an  alleged  deed  of  sale  in  1701,  when 
the  Iroquois  ceded  these  hunting-grounds  to  English  juris- 
diction, in  addition  to  their  ancestral  lands.  It  was,  as  they 
claimed,  a  title  in  addition  to  that  of  their  sea-to-sea  char- 
ters. When  the  French  cited  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  (1697) 
as  giving  them  sway  over  the  river  basins  where  they  held 
the  mouths,  and  claimed  this  as  paramount  to  any  rights 
the  Iroquois  could  bestow,  the  English  fell  back  on  these 


15 


territorial  charters  as  the  most  ancient  and  valid  claim  of  all. 

If  the  English  charter  claims  were  preposterous,  this 
supplemental  one  was,  in  even  some  part  of  contemporary 
opinion,  equally  impudent  and  presumptuous.  There  was 
by  no  means  an  undivided  sentiment  among  the  colonists 
upon  this  point ;  and  history  has  few  more  signal  instances 
of  tergiversation,  than  when,  at  a  later  day,  the  English 
government  virtually  acknowledged  the  justice  of  the 
French  claim  in  urging  the  passage  (1774)  of  the  Quebec 
Bill.  "  We  went  to  war,"  said  Townshend,  in  the  dei)ates 
on  this  bill,  <'  calling  it  Virginia,  which  you  now  claim  as 
Canada." 

We  read  in  Franklin's  statement,  in  1765,  before  the 
Stamp  Act  Committee,  that  the  Virginia  Assembly  seriously 
questioned  the  right  of  the  king  to  the  territory  in  dispute. 
George  Croghan,  on  the  contrary,  in  a  communication  to 
Secretary  Peters  of  Pennsylvania,  wondered  how  any- 
body could  doubt  that  the  French  on  the  Alleghany  were 
encroaching  upon  the  charter  limits  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  French  were  more  unanimous  in  their  view ;  but  it 
was  only  gradually  that  they  worked  up  to  a  full  expression 
of  it.  Bellin,  the  map-maker  for  Charlevoix,  had  drawn  in 
his  early  drafts  the  limits  of  New  France  more  modestly 
than  the  French  government  grew  to  maintain,  and  he  was 
soon  instructed  to  fashion  his  maps  to  their  largest  claims. 
In  like  manner,  the  earliest  English  map-makers  slowly 
came  to  the  pitch  of  audacity  which  the  politicians  stood  for, 
and  Bollan,  in  1748,  complained  that  Popple  (1732),  Keith 
(1738),  Oldmixon  (1741),  Moll,  and  Bowen  (1747)  had 
l)oen  recusant  to  English  interests.  It  was  not  till  Mitchell 
produced  his  map  in  1755  that  the  ardentest  claimant  for 
English  rights  was  satisfied. 


The  instructions  of  Duquesne,  in  1752,  say  that  '''tis 
certain  that  the  Iroquois  have  no  rights  on  the  Ohio,  and 
the   pretended   rights   through    them  of  the   English  is  a 


16 


chimera."  In  the  negotiations  of  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
in  1713,  the  English  had  succeeded  in  getting  an  admission 
from  the  French  which  required  all  the  resources  of  French 
diplomacy  to  qualify.  This  was  an  acknowledgment  of 
the  English  sovereignty  over  the  Iroquois.  The  French  at 
a  later  day,  when  they  felt  better  able  to  enforce  their 
views,  sniffed  at  the  obligation  and  called  the  phrase  "a 
simple  enunciation"  in  words  of  no  binding  significance, — 
a  summary  way  of  looking  at  an  obligation  which  could 
demolish  any  contract.  When  they  condescended  to  ex- 
plain what  they  sniffed  at,  they  insisted  that  the  Iroquois 
themselves  never  acknowledged  such  a  subjection.  Sir 
William  Johnson  was  frank  enough  to  call  the  connection 
of  the  English  and  Iroquois  one  of  alliance  rather  than 
subjection.  The  French  farther  pointed  out  what  was  true, 
that  the  Iroquois  did  not  always  consider  it  necessary  to 
consult  the  English  when  making  treaties  or  declaring  war. 
Again,  when  forced  to  other  explanations,  the  French  main- 
tained that  the  subjection  of  the  Iroquois  in  their  persons 
did  not  carry  sovereignty  over  their,  lands.  If  it  did,  they 
said,  the  Iroquois  who  occupy  lands  at  Caughnawagu,  would 
be  equally  subject  in  land  and  person,  and  that  would  in- 
volve the  absurdity  of  yielding  to  the  English  jurisdiction 
territory  at  the  very  gates  of  Montreal. 


There  was  another  clause  in  this  treaty  of  Utrecht  which 
the  French  were  hard  put  to  interpret  to  their  advantage. 
This  was  the  clause  by  which  the  French  acknowledged  the 
English  right  to  trade  with  all  Indians.  The  minutes  of  in- 
struction given  to  Duquesne,  show  how  this  was  interpreted. 
"  The  English  may  pretend  that  we  are  bound  by  the  Treaty 
of  Utrecht  to  permit  the  Indians  to  trade  with  them  ;  but  it 
is  sure  that  nothing  can  oblige  us  to  allow  this  trade  on  our 
own  lands."  This,  in  the  light  of  the  French  claim  to  the 
water-sheds  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  Mississippi,  would 
debrr  the  English  from  trading  at  Oswego,  and  on  the  Ohio. 


17 


The  English  had,  in  1726,  by  a  treaty  made  on  Septem- 
ber 14,  and  which  Governor  Pownall  prints  in  his  Admin' 
iKlralion  of  the  Colonies^  secured  a  fresh  recognition  by  the 
Iroquois  of  their  guardianship  over  them.  By  this  compact 
the  Senecas,  Cayugas  and  Onondagas,  falling  in  with  the 
concessions  of  the  Mohawks  and  Oneidas  in  1684,  surren- 
dered a  tract  from  Oswego  to  Cayahoga  (Cleveland),  with 
an  extent  inland  of  sixty  miles. 

A  score  of  years  and  more  passed  thereafter  before  the 
French  became  fully  sensible  that  they  must  forcibly  con- 
test their  claim  to  the  Ohio.  By  this  time  their  plan  had 
fully  ripened  of  connecting  Canada  and  Louisiana  by  a 
chain  of  posts,  and  of  keeping  the  English  on  the  seaward 
side  of  the  Alleghanies.  In  this,  they  we<-c  convinced, 
lay  a  riper  future  for  New  France  rather  than  in  crossing 
the  Mississippi  and  disputing  sovereignty  with  the  Spaniard. 
This  accomplished,  they  hoped  to  offer  a  barrier  against  the 
English  effective  enough  to  prevent  their  wresting  from 
Spain  the  silver  mines  beyond  the  Mississippi. 

The  French  had  always  claimed  priority  on  the  Ohio,  and 
when  Celoron  was  sent  in  1749  to  take  formal  possession 
along  its  banks,  by  hanging  royal  insignia  on  trees  and 
burying  graven  plates  in  the  soil,  that  officer  professedly 
made  "  a  renewal  of  possession  of  the  Ohio  and  all  its  afflu- 
ents,"— a  possession  originally  established  "  by  arms  and 
treaties,  particularly  those  of  Ryswick,  Utrecht  and  Aix-la- 
Chapelle."  There  was  urgency  for  such  a  "  renewal,"  for 
Celoron  found  that  the  English  were  already  in  possession 
of  the  country,  so  far  as  the  friendly  sanction  of  the  natives 
signified  it.  Thus  the  Iroquois  claim  to  that  extent  had 
proved  effective,  and  Colden  has  distinctly  expounded  it  in 
his  History  of  the  Five  Nations.  It  was  also  clearly  traced 
in  maps  by  Jefferys  in  1753,  and  by  i»lit43hell  and  Huske 
in  1755. 

It  was,  therefore,  a  necessity  for  the  French  to  use  force 
if  they  were  to  make  good  their  claims  by  holding  the 


18 


valley.  Accordingly,  we  find  in  1751,  La  Jonquicre 
iDHtructed  "  to  drive  from  the  Beautiful  River  (Ohio)  any 
European  foreigners,  and  in  a  manner  of  expulsU'!^  which 
should  make  them  lose  all  taste  for  trying  to  return." 
With  the  usual  French  diplomatic  reservation,  that  gov- 
ernor was  further  enjoined  "  to  observe  notwithstanding 
the  cautions  practicable  in  such  matters." 

There  is  a  M4moire  of  1751  which  sets  forth  the  French 
anxiety  lest  the  English,  by  securing  a  post  on  the  Ohio, 
should  be  able  to  keep  the  Indians  in  alienation  from  the 
French.  Such  English  success  would  mean  a  danger  to 
French  communications  with  the  settlers  on  the  Mississippi, 
who  stood  in  particular  need  of  Canadian  assistance  in  the 
war  which  was  waged  against  them  by  the  Carolina  Indians, 
instigated  by  the  English  there.  Without  such  a  bar  *o 
their  progress,  as  the  French  possession  of  the  Ohio,  the 
English  could  easily  advance,  not  only  upon  the  French 
posts  among  the  Illinois,  but  they  could  endanger  the  port- 
age of  the  Miami,  which  was  the  best  route  from  Canada, 
and  which  if  lost  might  involve  the  abandonment  of  Detroit. 

The  conclusion  of  this  complaint  is  two-fold  :  Detroit  must 
be  strengthened  by  a  farming  population  about  it  for  its  sup- 
port in  order  to  preserve  it  as  the  best  place  to  overawe  the 
continent.  The  Illinois  country  must  be  protected ;  its  buf- 
falo trade  fostered ;  that  animal's  wool  made  marketable ; 
and  the  custom  of  salting  its  flesh  prevail  so  that  the  neces- 
sity of  depending  on  Martinico  for  meat  be  avoided. 

The  movement  of  the  French  on  the  Alleghany  in  1754 
had  put  an  end  to  temporizing.  Albemarle,  who  was  Eng- 
land's ambassador  at  Paris,  was  a  butterfly  and  a  reprobate, 
and  he  was  little  calculated  to  mend  matters,  now  easily 
slipping  from  bad  to  worse. 

A  tough  and  sturdy  young  Yankee,  then  keeping  school 
in  Worcester,  Mass.,  John  Adams  by  name,  represented 
the  rising  impatience  of  the  colonists,  who  had  not  forgotten 
their  yeoman  service  at  Louisburg.     He  looked  forward  to 


19 


the  complete  expulsion  of  *'tbe  turbulent  Gallicksl" 
The  year  1755  opened  with  events  moving  rnpidly.  In 
January,  France  proposed  to  leave  matters  as  they  were 
and  let  commissioners  settle  the  dispute  in  details.  Eng- 
land in  response  fell  back  on  the  treaty  of  Utrecht.  In 
Fel)ruary,  France  proposed  as  a  substitute  that  all  east  of 
the  mountains  should  belong  to  -England,  and  all  west  of 
the  Alleghany  River  and  north  of  the  Ohio  should  fall  to 
France.  This  left  as  neutral  territory  the  slope  from  the 
mountains  to  the  Alleghany  and  the  region  south  of  the 
Ohio.  In  March,  England  assented  to  this,  provided  the 
French  would  destroy  their  posts  on  the  Alleghany  and 
Ohio.  This  would  make  a  break  in  the  French  cordon 
connecting  Canada  with  the  Mississippi,  and  would  give 
the  English  an  advantage  in  the  control  of  the  neutral 
country.  So  France  refused  the  terms.  In  June,  England 
again  resorted  to  the  conditions  of  Utrecht,  and  insisted  on 
the  validity  of  the  Iroquois  claim.  France  reiterated  her 
denial  of  such  a  claim,  as  regards  the  territory,  but  acknowl- 
edged it  as  regards  the  persons  of  the  confederates.  Eng- 
land insisted,  as  well  she  might,  that  this  was  not  the  inter- 
pretation put  upon  similar  provisions  in  other  treaties. 
England  now  reminded  Braddock  of  this  provision  in  the 
treaty  of  1726,  and  instructed  him  to  act  accordingly. 
This  brought  the  business  to  the  pitch  of  war,  though  both 
sides  hesitated  to  make  a  declaration.  Galissonniere  claimed 
it  to  be  the  testimony  of  all  maps  that  France  was  right  in 
her  claim,  and  her  possession  of  what  she  strove  for  was 
now  to  be  settled  by  sterner  evidence. 

Danville  and  the  other  French  map-makers  had  been 
brought  to  representations  that  kept  Galissonniere's  state- 
ment true.  The  English  cartographers  had  done  equally 
well  for  their  side,  and  Mitchell  could  be  cited  to  advantage. 
His  Map  of  the  British  and  French  Dominions  in  North 
America  was  based  on  document?  which  the  English  Board 
of   Trade  thought    best  enforced    their  claim,  and   the 


so 


publication,  wlien  made,  in  1755,  was  dedicated  to  their 
secretary.  In  an  accompanying  text  the  English  claim  was 
pushed  to  its  utmost,  and  every  old  story  was  revamped 
which  served  to  bolster  pretensions  of  the  English  preced- 
ing the  French  in  exploring  the  country,  reviving  the  anti- 
quated boast  that  New  Englanders  had  even  preceded  the 
French  in  crossing  the  Mississippi,  and  bad  really  furn- 
ished the  guides  for  La  Salle's  discoveries. 

Perhaps  the  best  knowledge  which  was  attainable  at  the 
time,  of  the  valley  of  the  Ohio,  had  been  reached  by 
Christopher  Gist,  who,  in  his  wandering,  had  corrected  the 
supposed  curves  and  trends  of  that  river.  Lewis  Evans, 
in  June,  1750,  made  his  proposals  to  visit  and  map  the 
country  under  disguise  as  a  trader,  and  in  the  pay  of  the 
province  of  Pennsylvania.  His  map  of  the  British  Middle 
Colonies  was  published  at  Philadelphia  just  in  time  to  be 
of  use  to  firaddock.  Washington  later  said  of  it  that, 
"considering  the  early  period,  it  was  done  with  amazing 
exactness."  The  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  wai  satisfied 
that  Evans  bad  mapped  the  Alleghanies  coriectly,  and 
contended  that  this  new  draft  showed  how  much  M'ould  be 
lost  if  the  English  made  these  mountains  their  bounds. 

Of  the  country  in  dispute  Evans's  map  in  one  of  its 
legends  represents:  "Were  nothing  at  stake,"  it  reads, 
"between  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  and  France  but  the 
lands  in  the  Ohio,  we  may  reckon  it  as  great  a  prize  as  has 
ever  been  contended  for  between  two  nations,  for  this  coun- 
try is  of  that  vast  extent  westward  as  to  exceed  in  good  land 
all  the  European  dominions  of  Great  Britain,  France  and 
^nain,  and  which  are  almost  destitute  of  inhabitants.  It  is 
impossible  to  conceive,  had  His  Majesty  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  its  value  and  great  importance,  and  the  huge 
strides  the  French  have  been  making  for  several  years  past 
in  their  encroachments  on  his  dominions,  that  His  Majesty 
would  sacrifice  one  of  the  best  gems  in  his  crown  to  their 
usurpation  and  boundless  ambition." 


II 


The  opinion  of  James  Muury  that  whoever  was  left  at 
the  end  of  the  war  in  the  possession  of  the  laltes  and  the 
Ohio  would  control  the  continent,  was  not,  at  this  time,  an 
unfamiliar  one  in  the  public  mind.  It  was,  moreover,  not 
unconnected  with  the  belief  that  in  the  time  to  come,  a 
route  west  by  the  Hudson  or  the  Potomac,  connecting  with 
these  vaster  water-ways  of  the  interior,  would  make  some 
point  on  the  Atlantic  coast  "the  grand  emporium  of  all 
East.  Indian  commodities."  We  have  lived  to  see  the 
prophecy  verified,  but  by  other  agencies. 


